Federer eases into Hamburg semis

By Iain Rogers

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Holder and top seed Roger Federer scored a comfortable 6-3 6-3 win over unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco at the Hamburg Masters on Friday to ease into the semi-finals.

The Swiss world number one, still without a major title to his name this year, was joined in the last four by closest rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

The second and third seeds will play each other for a place in Sunday's final and the in-form Serb will take over Nadal's number two world ranking if he wins. Federer will meet Italy's Andreas Seppi.

Djokovic brushed aside Verdasco's compatriot Albert Montanes 6-2 6-3 and Nadal thumped fellow Mallorcan Carlos Moya 6-1 6-3, while Seppi crushed the hopes of the home crowd by beating Germany's Nicolas Kiefer 6-3 5-7 7-5 in a three-hour thriller.

Federer took just under half an hour to wrap up the first set against Verdasco in the day's first quarter-final at the Rothenbaum but had to beat back a determined challenge at the start of the second, saving several break points.

After holding his serve for a 3-2 lead, the 24-year-old Spaniard called for the doctor and had his right ankle heavily bandaged. The clinical Swiss then took full advantage of his opponent's misfortune, breaking serve twice and cruising to victory in 81 minutes.

"He's a very talented player and he's got the game to upset anyone on any surface," the 12-times grand slam winner said at a news conference.

"In the end it was unfortunate for him that his foot hurt a little bit but I don't think that had much to do with it at the very end."